Payroll & People Systems Specialist

Real Pet Food Company; Sydney; On-site; AUD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Real Pet Food Company is seeking a Payroll & People Systems Specialist to oversee payroll and HR systems across AU operations. You will combine hands-on payroll administration with systems analysis to ensure accurate data, compliant processes and efficient workflows.

You’ll work with payroll, HR, operations and external vendors to troubleshoot, test upgrades and drive continuous improvement in data quality, controls and reporting.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience in an in-house payroll and/or people systems environment.
• Experience with UKG or a similar payroll/platform.
• 2–3 years’ experience with Time and Attendance in a multi‑award environment.
• Understanding of end-to-end payroll data flows and systems.

Responsibilities

• Administer and support payroll and people systems, including data, workflows and settings across AU locations.
• Understand data flow to payroll outcomes and downstream processes.
• Maintain data integrity, governance and compliance within system configurations.
• Identify gaps, control weaknesses and opportunities to reduce manual work and risk.
• Troubleshoot system errors with Payroll, HR and vendors and prevent recurrence.
• Test upgrades, validate changes and document outcomes.
• Maintain system procedures, reconciliations and reporting.
• Drive continuous improvement in automation and usage of data.

Skills

In-house payroll systems

UKG Pro

Time & Attendance

Data validation

Analytical thinking

Cross-team collaboration

Tools

UKG Pro

Job description

At The Real Pet Food Company (RPF), we’re passionate about creating fresher, more nutritious food for pets — and we know that great people, smart systems and strong processes help make it happen.

We’re looking for a Payroll & People Systems Specialist who looks beyond payroll to understand how our HR systems, data and workflows connect across the business. This is an opportunity for a curious, analytical and process-driven Payroll professional to help ensure our payroll and people systems operate accurately, efficiently and in line with our governance and compliance requirements.

What you’ll be doing

• Administer and support our payroll and people systems, including system configurations, employee data, workflows and pay-related settings. We have multiple Awards and EA's across locations in NZ & AU.

• Connect the dots across systems and processes, understanding how data entered at one point impacts payroll outcomes, reporting and downstream business processes.

• Protect system integrity and compliance by maintaining accurate data, validating configurations and ensuring system processes align with governance, legislative and employer requirements.

• Question, investigate and improve by identifying process gaps, inconsistencies, control weaknesses and opportunities to reduce manual work, errors and risk.

• Troubleshoot at the source, investigating system errors and working with Payroll, HR and vendors to resolve issues and prevent them from recurring.

• Support system changes and transformation, including testing upgrades, validating changes, documenting outcomes and helping ensure new functionality works as intended.

• Maintain effective controls and documentation, including system procedures, workflows, reconciliations and reporting.

• Drive continuous improvement, looking for opportunities to streamline processes, improve automation and make better use of our systems and data.

What you’ll bring

You’ll be someone who combines practical payroll administration and systems experience with a natural curiosity about how things work — and the confidence to ask whether they could work better.

• Hands‑on experience in an in‑house payroll and/or people systems environment, ideally working with UKG or a similar payroll or workforce management platform.

• 2‑3 years’ experience working with Time and Attendance processes within an multi‑award blue collar environment and processing of weekly and monthly pays

• A sound understanding of end‑to‑end payroll processes and the relationship between employee data, time and attendance, pay rules, system configurations and payroll outcomes.

• A strong process mindset, with the ability to follow data flows, identify downstream impacts and investigate the root cause of issues.

• An appreciation for payroll governance, compliance, system controls and the importance of ensuring processes are both correct and consistently followed.

• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, with excellent attention to detail and a healthy scepticism when something doesn’t look right.

• Experience with system testing, data validation, reconciliations, reporting or system enhancements.

• The confidence to challenge existing ways of working constructively, ask the right questions and recommend practical improvements.

• Strong communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively across Payroll, People & Culture, Operations teams and external providers.

Why join us?

You’ll join at an exciting time as we continue to improve and modernise our payroll function and where you’ll have the opportunity to make a genuine impact.

At Real Pet Food Company, we believe inWorking as a Pack, Making Your Mark, Leading with Passion and Changing the Game.

If you’re a payroll expert who knows how to keep things compliant — but also knows how to make them better — we’d love to hear from you.

Why Real Pet Food Company?

This is an opportunity to join a business that is growing, changing and challenging the way things are done.

You’ll have genuine ownership of payroll while working alongside the Head of Remuneration & Benefits and broader P&C and Finance teams to strengthen our payroll function.

With our payroll systems transformation and Payroll Metrics implementation imminent, you’ll be joining at exactly the right time to influence how payroll works in the future.

Our values are at the heart of how we work:

Work as a Pack – collaborate and support each other.
Make Your Mark – take ownership and make an impact.
Lead